Dianne Hood

Dianne Hood was a wife and mother of three in Colorado Springs, Colorado, whose murder in 1990 became one of the state's most notorious criminal cases, later widely described as a real life version of the film "Fatal Attraction." Her husband, Brian, was <cite index="5-13">a successful insurance salesman and devoted church-goer who'd met his wife in college</cite>. She lived with lupus, and it was as she was leaving a lupus support meeting that she was killed.

<cite index="5-1,5-2,5-3,5-4,5-5">On September 12, 1990, Dianne Hood, a 32-year-old mother of three, had just left a lupus support group at a community center in Colorado Springs, Colorado when a masked assailant in military garb grabbed her purse from behind and then shot her, the bullet piercing her back and knocking her to the ground, before firing a second shot as she lay on the ground; she was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.</cite> <cite index="5-8">Investigators found an Army field jacket, military fatigue pants, a black ski mask, and glove inserts discarded near the scene.</cite> <cite index="5-10,5-11">They initially believed she could have fallen victim to a robbery gone wrong, but officials questioned that theory because it was unlikely anyone would carry much money to a support group.</cite>

The case unraveled into a story of infidelity involving Dianne's own husband. <cite index="0-4,0-5">The Colorado Springs woman became known as the "fatal attraction" killer following the murder of Dianne Hood in 1990, when the shooter, Reali, then 28, had donned camouflage and a ski mask to ambush Hood as she left the lupus support meeting.</cite> <cite index="0-6">Reali testified that her lover, Brian Hood, persuaded her to kill his wife, claiming it was "God's plan."</cite> Reali was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and received a life sentence, while <cite index="8-6">Brian Hood, who was having an affair with Reali, was convicted of second-degree murder in the plot</cite> and <cite index="8-7">remained in prison five years past his initial 22-year sentence because of his escape in 1997</cite>.

The case drew sustained attention for its echoes of the 1987 film "Fatal Attraction," and it stayed in the news for years afterward. <cite index="0-11,0-12">Reali's life sentence was commuted by Colorado's governor in 2011, making her eligible for parole.</cite> <cite index="0-13,0-14">That came after her prosecutor, former district attorney John Suthers, argued that Reali's testimony had been critical to convicting Brian Hood and that she was unlikely to harm anyone again.</cite> <cite index="8-3,8-5">Twenty-seven years after the killing, Dianne Hood's oldest son, Jarrod Hood, said he was ready to "publicly forgive her in Christ's name" and supported her release, describing his mother as a devout Christian who "taught me to be a good sport and to walk in the fruit of the Spirit."</cite> Reali was paroled in December 2017, and <cite index="0-1,0-2">the Colorado Department of Corrections confirmed she died on March 24, just three months after her release, offering no other details</cite>.

Dianne Hood herself died on September 12, 1990, in Colorado Springs, at the age of 32, decades before any of these later developments. Her death left behind three children and a community shaken by the betrayal at its center. Her case is still cited in discussions of domestic homicide and infidelity, and it has been revisited in true crime programming, including a recent episode of Oxygen's "Mastermind of Murder."